Wednesday 6 May 2020

Retro - Billingham Synthonia 2 Ryton & Crawcrook Albion 0 (Northern League Division Two - 2015-16)


12th August 2015

Billingham Synthonia  2  Ryton & Crawcrook Albion  0 (Northern League Division Two)

Little known fact time – Billingham Synthonia are the only club in the World to be named after an agricultural fertiliser!

The ‘Synthonia’ part of their name is anyway, in the sense that it is a contraction of Synthetic Ammonia, a product made by ICI and a company the club has had close links with.

I’m no chemist, but while the name Synthonia does sound quite nice, I should imagine the substance itself is far from pleasant, wearing gloves, goggles and a face mask is probably a pre-requisite of dealing with the stuff. But then we are in Middlesbrough, the home of the ‘Smog Monsters’ as they are affectionately referred to by their fellow North East rivals, a City where chemicals, heavy industry and probably a fair degree of noxious fall out was once commonplace.

For some bizarre reason Rach was happy for me to go out for another evening of football, and whereas the game at West Auckland the night before was an hour away, I could make it to Billingham in around 45 minutes so not feel quite so far away from them, certainly not like I had done on the Tuesday when all I wanted to do in the end was get back. That said, when the fixtures for the Northern League came out, this was always on the radar and the Tuesday only entered into the equation at the last minute, so unless she had put her foot down, this was always going to happen anyway.


I was really curious about this one, I recall Billingham Synthonia from my early days of becoming interested in non-league football. Obviously the quirky name helped, but also, I recall from seeing pictures in directories and guide books that they had a simply awesome stand at the ground, that still remains, and is considered one of the iconic landmarks of non-league football, not only in the North East, but in the Country itself.

The journey was a simple one, back up the A174 to the A19 and then up a couple of junctions to the Billingham exit. From there it’s simply across a few roundabouts and the ground sits nicely on the left hand side of Central Drive. The dwellings in the locality are synonymous with the kind of housing you would expect in an area associated with heavy industry, and while old and somewhat tired, it certainly didn’t feel intimidating or by any means rough. Just traditional, honest, working class areas, in the shadow of the huge industrial landscape that sprawls along the North bank of the Tees into Middlesbrough.

Once inside, the size of that famous old stand hits you full in the face, what a magnificent structure it is. It straddles the full length of the pitch, and it’s the only form of spectator accommodation at the ground, while underneath lies the huge ‘Synners Bar’ the dressing rooms and the tea bar. The centre of the stand is taken up with seats, while either flank is terraced with crush barriers. The paddock below is also standing but sloped rather than terraced. It is truly a magnificent sight.

The pitch itself was in magnificent shape, and on a lovely night, with shadows being cast across the surface, it was one of those alter-idyllic settings for watching a game of football. Not your typical Porthmadog type mountainous scenery, but a harsh yet beautiful venue with surroundings that conjured up similar feelings, but in a totally different way. People laughed at me when I went to Runcorn Town and talked about the sheer beauty of a ground set amongst Oil Refinery’s, well this was similar, not quite as hemmed in by the industry as Runcorn, but compensated by the fact that the stand itself felt almost like an extension, or indeed a monument to the nearby steelworks.


Sometimes you forget you have gone to watch a football match, so engrossed in the venue you become, but I had, and it was to be a shock to the system for the Synners as it was their first home game in the Second Division of the Northern League since the 1986-87 campaign, having been relegated at the end of last season.

The Synners have historically been one of the top teams in the Northern League, but my thoughts are that when teams with such strong links to the local industry, as Synthonia have, find that economic times are getting tough, it gets harder for them as the industry that once supported them ceases to do so, or certainly to the level it once did. Furthermore, as that industry employed a big chunk of their support, and they fell on hard times personally or indeed moved away, the support base erodes.

All in all, a once big name, if now just that, a big name, because on the pitch they are miles away from where they once were, winning Championships and hosting league clubs in the FA Cup. It’s a shame, but times move on and the ground remains perhaps the only semblance of any authority and prowess the club once had in the Northern League.

The game wasn’t a patch on the previous evening’s entertainment. Synthonia beat visiting Ryton 2-0 at pretty much a canter, it wasn’t a great spectacle, but it was a case of job done for the home side. I would suggest a crowd of just over 100 was in attendance, and that after the club were pretty active with their Social Media based marketing in terms of trying to boost the gate by admitting children for free.

They do retain a hard core support though, who wear the shirts and the scarves, and in fairness they do take pride in their facilities, as everywhere was clean and tidy, but from reading the programme you can just see how close the club came in the summer to going out of existence. The previous Chairman decided to call it a day, and for a while the club had no direction and it seemed a new leader was not going to be forthcoming. However, one did, a management team was installed and now at least some stability has been restored, so perhaps getting back to former glories on the pitch isn’t really the number one priority right now, just having a club to support is more important.

Clubs like Billingham Sythonia, and grounds like Central Avenue are part of the fabric of amateur and latterly, semi-professional football in this Country. What makes it doubly hard is being located in the industrial North East, once a hot bed, it is now an area that is economically depressed and in some areas, socially deprived, so you do wonder what the future holds for clubs like them.

But for now, that wonderful old structure remains in all its glory, I suspect though, it won’t be around forever. But then again, maybe if the demand for Synthetic Ammonia spirals……..

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